Feb. 13, 2014

Written by

Charles Booth
Reader Submitted

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. In the early 20th century, Tennessee ranked sixth in the nation in lynchings, with mobs murdering some 214 people during a 40-year span. That number would have been higher, Historian Paula K. Hinton argues, had a small group of local, progressive women not stood up to angry mobs and complacent sheriffs.

Although their numbers were comparatively small, these women changed and saved lives even as they pushed the boundaries of what was considered ladylike behavior, Hinton, associate professor of history at Tennessee Technological University, wrote in her essay, Women ...